March Musings

Yesterday I was trying to think of a blog post for this week. My wife suggested the weather since I kept track of daily highs and lows.   On my walk that day it occurred to me that March is a month with some rather interesting cultural and natural circumstances that combined create quite the notoriety for a rather dismal month.  Perhaps we celebrate due the transition the month represents.  There is the Ides of March (march 15), March Madness (basketball tournaments), St. Patrick's Day, the vernal, or spring, Equinox, and the end of standard and beginning of day light savings time.  This year, weather wise, March came in like a lion.  I would argue, with a high anticipated of 8 degrees below normal, it did not go out like a lamb. 

Goldfinch

Let me begin with the weather.  While the high temperature in Madison on the first of the month was 30 degrees, or six degrees below the normal high, a few days later, on March 4, the temperature struggled reaching only a high of 7 degrees and a record low for the date of -10 degrees.  Showing how temperatures can quickly climb in March, by the fourth the normal high is 38; this meant the high for that day was 32 degrees below the normal high.  The low temperature was also 32 degrees below the normal low for the date.  (The record low for the whole month of -29, was set in 1962 on the first day of the month.) The following week this year, the high was 42 degrees, or right about normal for the date.  The variety in temperature is significant, because the snowy late January through February, coupled with rain led to significant flooding issues, particularly since the ground was still saturated from the heavy rains from last summer into fall. March weather can be highly variable, as seen this year.  From beginning to end, the normal high increases 14 degrees from 36 to 50 degrees, and the normal low 10 degrees from 20 to 30.  

Robin

A temperature change from 36 to 50 is, to the person more than a change from say from 10 to 24.  At 50 you can get by with a light weight coat or sweat shirt, and in the spring the sun may allow for no coat.  At 24 you still have a winter coat on.  March is also known for its winds, and kite flying, although I seldom see children flying kites anymore.  The wind helps to dry the ground, but it also can cause blustery days, such as this weekend   Today, on my walk just after nine am, the windchill was 19 degrees.  Not lamb like temperatures for a month having come in like a lion.

Hyacinth emerging, southerly face flower bed

Weather patterns are not the only natural event for the month.  The vernal equinox, for the northern hemisphere, occurred on 20 March, with the daylight being equal to its darkness.  This is the astronomical start of spring, but the meteorological spring began on March 1.  Meteorologists, are probably like the groundhog, taking advantage of any situation to their benefit.  This year, probably because of the cold weather in the early part of the month, I did not hear a forecaster talking about March being their spring.  They preferred to wait for the equinox.  

Tulips, westerly side of house

March is also known for its cultural events.  The time change slid earlier into March several years ago in an attempt to preserve energy, but they found out that while the longer days may not use as much house lighting, people are out and about more in their cars. Electrical energy savings is then offset by use of gasoline.  Time change does not have to occur, it is a cultural occurrence to adjust the clock to our hours.  Between the Time change and equinox is the Ides of March, the day Julius Caesar was murdered.  Its folk lore, and tales with the soothsayer have become its own industry and stands as a hallmark of deceit and traitors.  Although, Judas may rank ahead of Brutus and the others.  Another celebration between the the Ides of March and the equinox is St. Patrick's Day, the feast day of St. Patrick. Many communities have parades and other celebrations for the day.

Daffodils emerging, with winter mulch  stuck to leaves

The current main cultural phenomenon for March is March Madness, particularly the NCAA tournament where little work gets accomplished the Monday after the brackets are released and for the following Thursday and Fridays in two consecutive weeks.  This may rank higher in non-productivity than cyber Monday if your team received an invitation to the tournament.  This year, as the brackets were released many were surprised to see Gonzaga as  a #1 seed, and many predicted them to lose to a tall and physical Florida State team since that is the type of match-up in which they have had trouble this year.  They ended up succumbing to Texas Tech, the top ranked defensive team in the nation. The biggest issue raised was why Michigan State (MSU), the overall #5 seed was placed as the #2 seed in the bracket with overall #1 seed Duke.  This even though Michigan, also a #2 seed was placed in the same bracket as the fourth overall seed, Gonzaga.  MSU defeated Big Blue twice in the regular season and again in the Big Ten Championship game.  As the overall top #2 seed MSU should have been placed in the bracket with Gonzaga.  Duke, who won two close games, to advance to the Elite Eight will face MSU Sunday to see which teams goes to the final four.  Why this match-up?  In my mind, one need look no further than television, and the selection committee responding to CBS.  A MSU-Duke match pits two perennial power houses against each other.  Although MSU has only one win and 11 losses to Duke.  Duke attracts top talent, along with North Carolina, and feature some one and done freshman phenom players.  The question is not why Duke is there, but how other less talented teams are able to even compete with Duike who needed some questionable referee calls to advance.  Is the fix in just as it was for the Patriots winning the Super Bowl?  

As the days lengthen and warm, and winter changes to spring, crocus, daffodils and tulips rise from the cold earth.  Migratory birds start to return.  I don't know what the weather forecast will bring for April, but I do know that our cultural events seem to mimic the transition of the weather from winter to spring.

 Images by author, 3/30/2019

De-cluttering

My wife has a penchant for organization.  Now that she is retired she reorganizes what she has already organized.  She has also been doing a great deal of downsizing goods and possessions.  A few weeks ago a comic strip in the paper, "Zits" had a short series on the Mom having just binge watched a television show "Tidying Up" and it got her pumped to take on challenge to clean and organize the bedroom of her teenage son.  A later strip had her son and picking up each piece and having him ask if the item sparked joy.  A week later a different comic strip had a few strips related to the same subject.  When tidying and organizing gets to the comics you know it is popular.  Yet, in my mind, my wife could do the Marie Kondo show. 

Zits Comic (Google Images)

Americans apparently like to buy stuff, and the nation as a whole has driven the Chinese economy over the past few decades.  We have also driven the Japanese economy, so there is some irony in a Japanese lady giving lessons to Americans on downsizing and de-cluttering.  They sell us the stuff (junk?) and now have us get rid of it.  As the baby boomers age it is all the rage to downsize.  Our son loaned my wife a copy of a book titled Swedish Death Cleaning, where Swedes downsize so their children do not have to worry about the stuff.  Add this on top of "Tidying Up" and a whole industry is developing around downsizing and de-cluttering.  

De-Cluttering items awaiting pickup

On the home front the tidying up began over a year ago.  I knew I was in for a change when my wife reorganized the clothing items in my dresser drawers.  All the socks are folded in half lengthwise and grouped by color.  All the T shirts are not laid down but stand on edge.  She rolled up my underwear, but I since given up on that  method of storage.  The sock drawer and the t-shirt drawer are not near as tidy as they were when she first organized the dresser.  For some reason, when she was reading the draft of this post, the photo of the organization of my t-shirt drawer did not spark joy in her.  I think she probably got the folding information from Marie Kondo.  She downsized to the point she no longer has a dresser.  She has never asked me if any item I have sparks joy.  My reply would be it varies.  At the beginning of winter I look at my snow boots and they spark joy in anticipation of snow; by March when I look at my snow boots they decidedly do not spark joy, but I also know it would be stupid to get rid of them.

Comic 2 (Google Images)

More recently she has been going through our storage area in the basement and pulling out stuff she feels we will no longer need and donating it to varied causes.  At times, I pull a few things out, such as good dish cloths, if she does not wish to use at home, we can use camping.  There were also table knives I pulled out, because of the three main types of tableware, knives seem to break, at least a certain kind.  It most often occurs digging into peanut butter jars and the handle loosens from the blade.  One piece knives are the best.  My wife is not the only person into downsizing possessions.  She in fact suggested this topic as a blog post, and went even further that I should watch Marie Kondo's "Tidying Up" episodes.  I saw perhaps five minutes of a couple episodes she was watching to come to the conclusion that I do not need to watch or read Marie Kondo when I have my wife.  

My t-shirt drawer

It is an interesting economic dynamic that the nation is in the midst of a downsizing trend.  Watching "Antique Roadshow" it becomes apparent that items of value ten to thirty years ago have decreased in value today--dining china is just one good example.  Two areas of collectibles that seem to be increasing in value on the show are usually items made in China, particularly those made of Jade, or African-American folk art.  This is due to the current high interest from Chinese made wealthy by the US consumer and African-Americans wanting items of their heritage.  Economically concern has arisen that the world is heading for a recession. 

Zits Comic 3, (Google Images)

Population and purchasing, particularly by first world nations, (most specifically the US) drive the world economy and in many western nations birth rates are at an historic low as the Millennial generation puts off child birth.  Having children increases population and increases spending.  Spending on goods made in China apparently is decreasing, which has led to the recession concern.  What is interesting is that regardless of tariffs and a slow down in China, the US trade deficit with China has not decreased.  The US is still buying their (Chinese) stuff.  That is not to say that a decrease in consumer spending on stuff one may not really need is all bad.  The economy may need to adjust, but the adjustment becomes more difficult when teamed with technological innovations which are reducing employment opportunities.  Of course, purchasing less may be a wise environmental choice. 

Sally Forth comic strip (Google Images)

Life is full of making choices.  Before a meeting the other day I was making small talk with two colleagues about local flooding, basements and sump pumps.  One person noted that she and her spouse are soon to be building a new house, and they have decided to not have a basement.  One reason she said is not having a basement will limit their accumulation of stuff.  I then noted that my wife has been in the process of de-cluttering and our porch had a pile of boxes for pick up.  Another colleague noted that his wife is also de-cluttering, but he found it interesting that most of the stuff she is getting rid of is his.  I noted that my wife is so de-clutter driven that she may well place me on the front porch to await pick up. 

The earlier photo made my wife redo my t-shirt drawer

As we downsize and de-clutter our personal world, goods can be reused or re-purposed by others.  It is amazing what some sell in on-line forums.  One persons junk is another persons need.  As for me, if one sees me on the front porch with a pile of boxes they will know that I failed to spark joy and was set out for pick up.

  

Design Matters

The built environment is all around us.  Good design can make what is built both functional and pleasing.  There is a saying that form follows function, but as we know that is not always the case.  It is all too often that an architect wishes to make a statement and that can easily lead to function following form.  Often, the Starchitect form is not overly pleasing, and actually does little for the good of the landscape in which it is located.  Design failures can be simple and hardly noticed, or they can be big and regularly noticed.  This post is about a few areas of what I interpret to be design mishaps in my local community of McFarland, WI.

Snow pile indicates extent of clearing.  Look into photo and see rocks and
planter which prohibit snow  plows from getting through
Looking south

Design informs how we interact not just with the constructed world, but with others around us.  Sometimes design failure is about forgetting simple aspects of human life and physics--e.g. the shortest distance between two points is a straight line.  For many, many years college campuses forgot about that and placed rectangular sidewalks around a square thinking no one would want to walk the diagonal, across a square.  The first design issue in McFarland is the new child play area adjacent to the library.  I am sure some landscape architect received many kudos for the design.  What stood out in my mind is the layout of a boulder next to the sidewalk.  A standard five foot wide sidewalk, constructed with the library, runs from the public sidewalk to the library entrance, and this sidewalk runs along the edge of the child play area totally reconstructed last summer.  The design, and construction of the play area involves large stones (and bench) at the edge of the sidewalk.  Up until the construction of the new play area the sidewalk was cleared in the winter, but  this past winter it was not cleared.  The reason is simple, the boulders prohibit the use of a small tractor, skid-steer, or small utility vehicle (such as a John Deere Gator) to clear the sidewalk.  Someone was not thinking. Clearly they did not care about the shortest distance between two points.  Having worked in local government for over 33 years one thing is certain, public works and park crews are built around the use of machines, no one is going to hand shovel unless it is absolutely necessary.  Even if they had a walk behind snow blower they do not wish to get out of their enclosed piece of equipment and do another chore.  This is a small matter of design, but one that should have been caught.

10+ minutes before school release cars are backing up on the roadway
The school addition could have been constructed toward this intersection

The other aspects relate to the construction of the elementary school directly behind my home.  There was at one point two schools on the site, but the oldest school, a two story building which had many aspects of good urbanism, was razed.  In its place is a massive one story building attached to the building that remained.  Two things strike me about this school.  First its site was designed not for its intended K-2 inhabitants, but for cars.  Second, it is a great example of suburban design, and more importantly an example of how not to design.

Crossing guard in Yellow.  Like the Maytag repairman?

The form follows function of design clearly is not at work in its parent pick up and drop off.  This is an utter failure.  This year, even though construction on the school was completed last September, the school district still has most all children who attend the school bused to the school, pretty much regardless of location in the Village.  Even before the new school was built this drop off configuration was completed at a large cost.  Since the outset it has failed.  The vehicular traffic picking up and dropping of school children is so great that it backs up onto the street, as can be seen in the attached photos (the crossing guard told me it often backs up even greater than the time I happened to view it last week).  The back up affects non-school traffic, and is a clear failure of design to have form follow function.  And, it is not like someone did not inform the powers that be that this was going to happen.  A neighbor to the school, who was employed as a city planner at the time, wrote a letter to the Village and school about the poor design and the effect it would have on traffic.  How much worse will it be if the school no longer chooses to bus so many K-5 students?

Boulder along sidewalk edge
Looking north

The school district is its own worst enemy.   To pass a referendum many years ago now they decided to break schools by grades rather than create neighborhood schools.   Instead of having two elementary schools of K-5, there is a K-2 school and another school for grades 3-5, at the opposite end of town.  Meaning more kids beyond a reasonable walk distance. The obvious ramification is kids just don't walk to school, they get driven (or bused).  By their own design of grade configuration they are making it more likely for parents to drop off and pick up their child, and of course it is double and triple fold when you have children in more than one school.  And people wonder why their is an obesity epidemic among youth. Part of the blame goes to schools and not just because of grade configuration.  Blame also needs to be placed on the "mandate" of the Department of Public Instruction that new schools have a minimum acreage requirement.  For elementary schools it is 12 to 15 acres.  This moves schools to the periphery of the community to access land availability, but where there is the least walkability and bikeability.   It is a promotion of the auto-oriented car culture. It is funny how so many climate change warriors fail to look at simple regulations and mandates that encourage auto dependency.  (If Governor Evers desires to reduce carbon, he failed to promote schools in walkable areas as head of DPI for many years.)  Auto dependency has now been so ingrained in the nation that it is expected and that low level of expectation leads to bad design, and places cars over people.  I have yet to meet a second grader that drives, but yet what one sees from the street is not the school, but the parking lots.

View up Sure Street from Exchange Street 

The other aspect of the poor school design is that it failed to do one of two things:  It was not built to the corner, and absent that it was not built to provide a terminated vista for the one street that approaches the school, Sure Street.  however, when you look up Sure Street to the school what do you see?  A parking lot.  the corner, which is but a half block from the Village Hall and Library, is occupied by a detention basin, parking lot, and pavement for drop-off and pick-up,  not a building.  It was possible to design the building at the corner or with a terminated vista as viewed from Sure Street.  The car culture kept it so neither design principle could be met. The school building addition could easily have been designed to provide either a presence at the corner, or with a prominent feature visible from Exchange Street up Sure Street, say a well designed main entry.  Then again, that would have required the architect, school board, and village to think beyond a car dependent culture, but alas that was apparently above the capabilities of those groups to understand and appreciate.

View from Sure at Johnson
Main entry to school is just to the left.
Snow piles obscure (a temporary screen) the vehicles in the parking lot

And it is that lack of appreciation for the aspects of design as to why so much design fails.  If one were to look at the cities and villages which persons hold in high regard in Wisconsin they are ones that have not lost their traditional downtown.  Would the small communities of Door County be so attractive if the villages had not required at least some design to keep building close to the street (urbanism) rather than providing a sea of parking and the building far back? Or, think of Mount Horeb and Cambridge each with dynamic downtown which embraces good urbansim.   I have written before about walk appeal, which you can read here, so it is not necessary for me to also identify the importance of urban design for walking.

School bus from Elementary School  in subdivision adjoining the school

How important is a terminated vista?  Well, for those in the Madison, WI area, think of what the view up East or West Washington Avenue (or any of the other side streets for that matter) would be if instead of the State Capitol it was a parking lot or ramp? How well would that please they eye?   What is important is that such terminated vistas be used more frequently, it should not only be the State Capitol building.  Public use buildings, whether a school, church, library or administrative building need to provide a place of prominence in the community--it adds to the purpose of what a public building is for and what it provides to the community.  It adds a sense of place and it adds a sense of grandeur.  Instead since the arrival of the car culture, generally post WWII, many public buildings fail in this test.  They are designed for cars, not people, they are designed not to provide pleasing views, but to make sure there is sufficient parking in front.  (Deflected vistas, depending upon the overall viewscape, can also be an effective tool, but alas suburban car culture also fails in the use of that design principle.)

WI State Capitol Building

There is also the failure of design professionals--planners, architects and landscape architects who have become too comfortable with the status quo car culture that is  inherently dangerous to the human scale.  Until the public starts to demand designs for the human scale and not the car scale, we will simply continue to see seas of parking and uneventful buildings that do little to raise the imagination. How many new public buildings, constructed in a suburban fashion in the last 70 years do you think are or will be worth saving 50 or 100 years distant?  Urban design need not be expensive, and that is what Starchitects do not like.  Good urban design uses simplicity to perform elegance, not disjointed and crazy roof lines or fenestration.  It will probably be less than 100 years, if  not less than 80 years out, that the school behind me will be torn down and another unimaginative building put in its place.

First seven photos by Author on 3/14 or 3/15 2019

Last photo from Google Images

Hitting Notes

One of the hymns at mass on Ash Wednesday brought to mind a book I had just completed the day before.  That book, Tattoos on the Heart by Greg Boyle, SJ,  is a compilation of stories of Fr. Boyle's work with former gang members (although once a gang member always a gang member?) who work(ed) for Homeboy Industries  in LA.  Gang members are referenced as Homies.  Fr. Boyle notes that Los Angeles is the gang capital of the United States, and the area in which he ministers is the gang capital of LA.  Fr. Boyle began work in the area in the mid 1980's as an associate pastor at St. Dolores Mission Church.  The church was in the midst of two notorious housing projects, together known as Pico-Aliso.  Fr. Boyle's stories are both heart wrenching and beautiful, showing both the hard side of gangs and yet the grace that love and compassion can render when realized. That is where the hymn "Ashes" (Tom Conroy)  comes into play.   Boyle has  the following quote (p.94):  "Resilience is born by grounding yourself in your own loveliness, hitting notes you thought were out of your range."  Every person has some loveliness, they may just need to discover it; that is what Homeboy attempts.

We rise again from ashes,
from the good we've failed to do.
We rise again from ashes,
to create ourselves anew.
If all our world is ashes,
then must our lives be true,
An offering of ashes,
An offering to You. 

What is shown by Boyle is the resilience of the Homies of LA, and the ability of many to move above a terrifying cycle and existence where parents have been drug addicts, or in many circumstances simply not present; it is an existence of drugs and crime, and quite frankly little opportunity. Given the socio-economic situation present, Boyle quickly realized more had to be done.  Fr. Boyle, who served two years as an assistant at that parish, and would become pastor after a trip to Bolivia instilled in him a desire to work with the poor.

Fr Boyle with some Homies

The church quickly became a homeless shelter under Fr. Boyle.  It did not take long for the ugly, lingering, overwhelming odor of smelly feet and homeless men to encapsulate the church and to get people to complain.  Hence, a parish meeting was called to discuss the matter.  When one person present asks "why we let it happen" (i.e. the church being used as a homeless shelter) a woman responds because that is what we are committed to do.  When asked why they have such a commitment, the response by another parishioner was simple, it is what Jesus would do.  An older man then gets up in the back and yells (although in Spanish) "It smells like commitment"; the place, Boyle recounts breaks into cheers.  The smell is still there, he says,  it is simply cloaked in the sense of mission.  This is not a wealthy parish, it is the poorest in the diocese, yet these members, from the lowest end of the social and economic strata are committed to helping their neighborhood.  Grounding themselves in loveliness. To create a world anew.

From Inaugural Radical Disruptors Event, July 2017
In 2017 "The Economist" magazine referred to Homeboy Industries  as the
most successful gang intervention and rehabilitation program in the world.

There are likely few poorer and crime ridden areas of LA than Boyle Heights, in which Homeboy and St. Dolores church are located.  Boyle quickly realized that many children in the area were kicked out of school, and so he opened an alternative school, and a day care.  This then led him to create what is now known as Homeboy Industries, a way to provide counseling, jobs and training to former  gang often incarcerated youths and young adults. All in east LA an area teeming with gangs, bad blood, drugs, and vendetta's.  

Homeboy runs the largest tattoo removal service in the world

The thing about Homeboy Industries is that it employs former members of varied rival gangs. Members of former rival gangs work next to each other.  To say animosity, hate and revenge runs deep would be an understatement.   It makes "West Side Story" a walk in the park. As one said, the book is about fall, grace and redemption. It is here, out of desire for revenge, that Homeboy wants to develop what Boyle refers to as kinship.  But yet, in too many instances a young person who had found redemption would be killed, either just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time (as occurred to a young man who was packing his car to head out for a camping trip) or because he or she had once been a member of a rival gang.  Some gang members clearly had failures, but many obtained goodness.

We offer You our failures,
we offer You attempts;
The gifts not fully given,
the dreams not fully dreamt.
Give our stumblings direction,
give our visions wider view,
An offering of ashes,
An offering to You.

In one example of goodness, Fr Boyle was to receive an award from Loyola Marymount University, but a  previously scheduled speaking engagement prevented him from attending so he asked a Homie to accept the award on his behalf.  Most all Homies have a record, and have served time in some sort of prison, jail, or detention.  Elias, the Homie, agreed to accept the award but had second thoughts when he finds out he has to say a few words.  He walks up with his folded legal paper, reads mostly a non-descript text describing his life turnaround, his coming up from the ashes.  The audience gets he is not a well bred speaker, but he speaks from the heart.  He then ends with perhaps the most compelling words, that the audience would probably not forget: "Because Fr. Greg and Homeboy Industries believed in me, I decided to believe in myself.  And the best way I can think of payin' 'em back is by changing my life.  And that's exactly what I've decided to do  (p. 105)."  The crowd gives the boy a standing ovation although he thought it was for Fr. Greg Boyle, and not himself. Elias' road to healing was underway. Elias came to realize a vision with a wider view.

Then rise again from ashes,
let healing come to pain;
Though spring has turned to winter,
and sunshine turned to rain.
The rain we'll use for growing,
and create the world anew,
From an offering of ashes,
An offering to You.

Homeboy HQ

Another story related by Fr. Boyle is that of a Homie who has no family.  When Fr. Boyle asked what he did for Christmas he noted that he invited five other Homies from the crew over for dinner and made a turkey, which he says was prepared "Ghetto-style".  He prepared only a turkey.   What is crucial is that they were from rival gangs, who in an earlier life would have been shooting each other.  Miguel, the boy who prepared the turkey, says " Yeah, the six of us just sat there, staring at the oven, waiting for the turkey to be done." (p. 88)  Fr Boyle comments that "One would be hard-pressed to imagine something more sacred and ordinary than six orphans staring at an oven together." (p 88)  Fr. Boyle asks Miguel how he does it with all the pain and suffering he has experienced.  Miguel responds, ""You know, I always suspected that there was something of goodness in me, but I just couldn't find it.  Until one day,' -he quiets a bit-'I discovered it here in my heart.  I found it...goodness. And ever since that day I have always known who I was.'" (p 89)   Miguel had grown.   

... Thanks be to the Father,
who made us like Himself.
... Thanks be to His Son,
who saved us by His death.
... Thanks be to the Spirit,
who creates the world anew,
From an offering of ashes,
An offering to You.

What is present in this book is what Pope Francis has called the harmony of redemption.  The sad thing is that gang wars and resentment still present themselves in terrible ways,  and too many persons are gunned down for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or some aspect of a past they had left behind caught up with them from a rival gang.  Fr. Boyle fully understands that it is difficult to measure success, because there is the "daily dread of setbacks (p. 167).  Fr. Boyle notes the young men and women need to want to help themselves.  He notes that it is difficult for them to look to the future, likely because their present is so bleak; he comments that gang members are young people that are in an exclusive group planning not their future but their funerals.  But, Fr. Boyle also notes that the key to Homeboy Industries is not the counseling or job training, but it is about healing. It is, as he says, about accompaniment. The Homies have offered their failures and their attempts.  If healed they will redirect their path.  Many have risen from the ashes.

Homie working at the Homegirl Cafe

The last chapter of his book is entitled "Kinship" and begins with the following sentence:  "Mother Teresa diagnosed the world's ills in this way: we've just 'forgotten that we belong to each other' "(p. 187).  A simple yet elegant expression showing the need for all to belong to one kinship, as all are created in the likeness and image of God.  Good words to ponder in our present time.  Fr. Boyle demonstrates the power of compassion and getting young gang members to believe in themselves.  In that sense, he gets them to hit notes which they thought were out of their range.  In other words, these young people have risen from the ashes and made their lives anew.  Thanks be to the Spirit who creates life anew.

Note:
Homeboy Industries, is explained on their website as:

Homeboy Industries provides hope, training, and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of our community. Each year over 10,000 former gang members from across Los Angeles come through Homeboy Industries’ doors in an effort to make a positive change. They are welcomed into a community of mutual kinship, love, and a wide variety of services ranging from tattoo removal to anger management and parenting classes. Full-time employment is offered for more than 200 men and women at a time through an 18-month program that helps them re-identify who they are in the world, offers job training so they can move on from Homeboy Industries and become contributing members of the community - knowing they count!

Homeboy has become a blueprint for more than 250 social enterprises in the US and sixteen other countries.  

Source:  Boyle, Greg. 2010.  Tattoos on the Heart: the Power of Boundless Compassion.  Free Press, NY NY.

Images from Google Images.

The Emperor's Slave Labor

When I was doing my college coursework at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater one of my geography professors had a hearing aid in each ear.  His hearing aids, it would be revealed, was related to his being a guest of the Emperor of Japan during WWII.  Japan, thinking that such a euphemism would put things in a better light, referred to Prisoners of War (POW) as guests of the Emperor.  What would happen to my former professor, and others was that they were slave labor for many of the Japanese industrial giants, is little known and recognized today.  The book  and movie Unbroken provide but a small glimpse into the life of a POW.  As the social justice warriors of the United States drive around in their Subaru's and Prius' few apparently think of the trials and mistreatment Japan did to the Allied POWs under their "care".  Two prior posts this year focused on the rescue of prisoners who were mainly from the Bataan Death March, and the sinking of the USS Houston.  The Bataan Death March and the sinking of the Houston, along with the Lost Battalion (a National Guard unit from Texas) were among the first American's taken prisoner by Japan.  But, if Japan had followed the code of conduct for war time, as laid out in various accords, my former professor would never have been in Japan.

POWs in Japanese POW camp in the Philippines

First, I could go in to significant detail on the treatment of Allied Prisoner's of War by the Japanese government, but that would be much to lengthy. As noted in a prior post only 1% of Allied POWs died in German hands, compared to 27% held by the Japanese  Let me simply say, that now that top secret files have been released and a few survivors have talked, a better glimpse of treatment has come to light.  A few examples of how well the Japanese treated the Emperor's guests can suffice.  First, men were sometimes made to stand at attention all night naked (in well below zero temperatures of the north of Japan) and in at least one situation a Japanese guard would come by and place use a clamp the private parts of a POW he thought was particularly well endowed.  Second, while building the Burma-Thai Railway, some prisoners were buried up to their heads in the ground and the heads covered with syrup to draw flesh eating ants. Most all prisoners in the tropics of the Philippines, Burma or Thailand had come up with several tropical diseases, and many died due to those--beriberi, malaria, just to name two. Over 400 men died per mile of construction of that railway.  Then of course there was the mass killing of many prisoners, some of which preceded the 1944 order by the Japanese Government to kill all prisoners and leave no trace as the Allies advanced island by island, territory by territory.  Such mass killings is what led the United States to undertake the famous raid at Cabanatuan.  

Construction of the Burma-Thailand Railway, by Allied Slave Labor

Each camp seemed to have different methods of torture, but a few things were common:  undernourishment, if any really edible food at all, lack of clothing--most all required to wear the clothes in which they were captured even in the cold climate mining ores in northern Japan. These clothes became rags, and particularly in the jungles, many then had no clothes to wear. Even though Red Cross care packages were to be distributed once a week, most only saw one such package during their up to 3+ years in captivity.  The only time decent clothes could be worn was the rare visit by the Red Cross.  Footwear was not replaced when it wore out.  The slave laborers were transported from the Philippines and other islands to varied work locations at the homeland, or on the mainland (such as to work on the Burma-Thai Railway) by merchant ships unmarked as to carrying POWs and hence the ships became targets of Allied air forces. (The Geneva Accords required prisoner ships to be properly marked.)  How they were treated and packed into merchant ships is another story, but so many were crammed into a small space such that they became known as Hell ships. Seldom were they let up for fresh air.  By the end of 1942 Japan had 26,943 US prisoners.  Over 25,000 US citizens would serve as slave labor employed by over 72 Japanese corporations.  The Cabantuan prisoner's were considered to ill to travel and to be forced into slave labor on the Burma-Thai railroad or in Japan. 

Austrialian POW, slave labor in Japanese Mine

My professor, was a civilian construction worker at Wake Island at the time of his capture, and he was sent to Japan to work in the ship yards.  He lost much of his hearing working on the hulls of the ships.  By the approved accords for treatment of civilians and prisoners, he and other civilian men, women and children should have been sent back to their home country.  Japan did not do this--these persons became hostages; and not being military perhaps POW is the wrong term.  They were pure and simple slave labor, if that is how a guest of the Emperor is treated, how would they treat a non guest?  The skill set of US men were highly valued by the Japanese.  The country and its corporations needed the slave labor to mine the ores, build the ships, and make the fabric for the Japanese war machine.  They were forced to produce products to be used against their own countrymen.  Several did what they could to sabotage their work, such as happening to break a machine, or putting small holes in oil barrels so the oil would drain out during transport.  Although quotas still had to be met regardless of frailty or working conditions. I see this similar to the Jewish slave labor during the the of Moses--the movie the "Ten Commandments" has them making bricks without straw.

Two Mitsui Mine Slave Laborers

Command is what the Japanese did well.  Companies would apply for laborers to fill their workforce needs.  The book Unjust Enrichment, goes through a few stories of the many Japanese corporations who used Allied slave labor:  Mitsui. Mitsubishi, Showa Denko, NKK, and Kawasaki.  All are large conglomerates built in part by Allied slave labor.  Many companies at some point misrepresented their involvement in slave labor in WWII in order to secure construction and supply contracts in the United States.  Armed forces need materials, ammunition, and equipment.  The production of these items produces wealth for those entities, ie corporations, who obtained the contract.  The treatment of the prisoners by the Japanese and their corporations is beyond comprehension for a civilized society. Most report having received no pay and a few who were paid for a day or a week of the up to 3+ years of captivity had expenses deducted.  Prisoners were forced to sign time cards written in Japanese, a language they did not understand.   At one company so many men died that they stopped having funeral services since the funerals ate too much into the workday.  

Mitsui Mine

Even more difficult to explain was the treatment of the men when they were freed from captivity.  US General MacArthur made sure to get to all the POW camps as quick as possible to free the men before they mass killings could take place.  As the treaty was being signed, forces were on the move to the near 200 locations.  Although the Japanese would  only identify just over half of the actual prison/slave labor camps.  Yet, the Truman Administration in negotiating the final treaty would not allow reparations to be paid to the men, and Armed Forces brass threatened court marital of any who made their stories known.  The private corporations and their executives were not listed as war criminals, and neither was the Emperor.  It was not uncommon for ships carrying the former POW's to be kept at dock until dark so the emaciated men could disembark to avoid the public seeing their condition. The Truman Administration was concerned about public outrage, so the government hid their condition.  Of course, undertaking manual labor in extreme conditions and malnourished led to many of the POW having a permanent malady, such as that professor's hearing loss, or permanent disability.  Some were beaten so bad their bones became misaligned.

3 POWs at Fukeda #3 camp.  Middle man is being held up by
a person behind him.  All would die before freedom came.
Photo taken by a fellow POW who built a makeshift camera in which he
confiscated X-ray film to obtain the image

The US was outsmarted by the Japanese. The lead US negotiator, a good friend of former US President F Roosevelt, had limited knowledge of Japan; as one commentator said, his knowledge was limited to chow mein noodles.  Other countries sent persons who were knowledgeable of Japanese customs and methods. The trump card played by the Japanese was that they threatened to become a communist system if their corporations and emperor were subjected to war crime trials.  (We can only speculate, if not for Allied slave labor during the war, and American money after the war would Japan have become another version of North Korea?)  Not that conviction would have earned much of a penalty.  Those that were tried and convicted (some to be imprisoned for over 20 years) of war crimes had sentences commuted by the Japanese government shortly after the end of the US occupation in 1952.  All by 1958.

Some of the Emperor's Guests

The men subjected to slave labor are fast disappearing, and only a few of their stories have been told to our nation.  German companies were made to pay billions in reparations, Japanese companies, who used much more in terms of POW slave labor have not.  In fact, some reparations the Japanese paid citizens of other countries used US funds sent in 1944 to the Red Cross to purchase supplies for the POW's.  Japan would not allow this money to be used to purchase items of clothing, medicine and food for the men.  Instead the Japanese hoarded the money and would use it for their own purposes.    Social justice is a big issue in the world today, but no Subaru driving social justice warrior has taken up the claims of US slave labor to assist and enrich Japan's corporations and its Emperor.  These corporations have a great deal of our wealth, could they not spare some to assist those who gave so much to enrich those corporations?   The cruelty and brutality of the Japanese to the Emperor's slave laborers was only matched by the perseverance of those laborers at the lowest time of their lives.  

Emperor Hirohito, who served until his death in 1989.

Sources:  

Hornfischer, James D. Ship of Ghosts, 2006 Bantam Books, NY NY.

Holmes, Linda Goetz.  Unjust Enrichment: How Japan's Companies Built Postwar Fortunes 
Using American POWs.  2001 Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.

Images from Google Images.